San Diego  Brandyn Dombrowski has earned the right to continue to start in the playoffs, and Jon Runyan remains an insurance policy.

“Dombrowski is the starting right tackle, and I’m very impressed with the way he’s played,” Chargers coach Norv Turner said yesterday. “I’m glad Jon Runyan got a chance to play. … It just gives you a good feeling to know that if you had an issue we are in good shape in all our positions (on the offensive line).”

Dombrowski has started the past six games in place of Jeromey Clary, who underwent ankle surgery after being injured Nov. 22 at Denver. The Chargers signed Runyan two days later with the expectation the 13-year veteran would work his way into the starting lineup at some point.

Runyan got substantial work Dec. 25 at Tennessee and played three quarters Sunday against Washington.

Bye = good

Much time is spent this time of year talking about whether a team having a bye week is a good thing, for the purpose of staying in a rhythm.

But Philip Rivers’ smile said as much as anything that he and his teammates are grateful for the time off.

“There is a reason you have it,” Rivers said. “If not they’d say, ‘No. 1 and 2 play, and everyone else would have a week off.’ You do benefit from it — healthwise, and you get extra days to practice, install stuff and work on things.”

The Chargers will practice tomorrow, Thursday and Friday before taking the weekend off. They will do something light Monday and have their regular Tuesday day off before resuming full work next Wednesday.

Turner said he might shorten some drills to give players fewer reps this week. The focus will be on getting healthy, resting and fine-tuning some things that don’t have to be opponent-specific.

“We can really get into some detail in terms of preparing for this game and be real exact in what we want to do,” Turner said.

As for avoiding rust, Turner believes that can be done.

“We practice fast,” Turner said. “You just have to go fast and maintain that type of mentality. I think that’s a strength of this team.”

Injury update

Turner said he expects the players who missed Sunday’s game “to be able to participate at some level this week and then all of them, without having a setback, would be full-go next week. The more they can do this week, the better it is for them.”

Turner also announced that linebacker James Holt, who left Sunday’s game in the second quarter, will have shoulder surgery and be lost for the season. The Chargers have not announced who will replace Holt, a standout on special teams.

Nuts ’n’ Bolts

• The NFL released the first-round draft order for this year and the Chargers were listed at No. 31. However, unless they lose the Super Bowl, they will pick in a different spot. If they win the Super Bowl they would select 32nd; if they lose in the AFC Championship Game they would pick 30th, and if they lose their first playoff game they would choose 27th or 28th, depending on how the Colts fare.

• Chargers regular-season telecasts this year averaged a 31.3 Nielsen rating in San Diego, the highest average since at least 1996. The number received a final boost from Fox’s telecast of Sunday’s game, which posted a season-best 36.8 rating, the third highest for a regular-season game since Nov. 1996. The only higher ratings in the past 13 seasons came for Sunday night games: 37.4 for the 2008 season finale vs. Denver (NBC) and 37.2 for a 2005 game against Oakland (ESPN).